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sadevamanussāya

sadevamanussa

fem instr sg of sadevamanussa (adj); masc dat sg of sadevamanussa (adj); fem dat sg of sadevamanussa (adj); nt dat sg of sadevamanussa (adj); …

1. with kings and commoners; with gods and men

Built from

• sa — prefix · with, together
  The prefix sa- (from *sem-) brings things together into a collective unity, here joining two categories of sentient beings into one inclusive whole.
• deva — root · god, divine being
  From PIE *deiw- 'to shine, appear divine'. Cognate with Latin deus and English deity; in the Pali canon, devas are celestial beings ranked above humans in the hierarchy of realms.
• manussa — stem · human, man
  From Sanskrit mānuṣa, ultimately from Manu (the archetypal human progenitor); cognate with English man, mental, Latin mens. Represents the human realm in opposition to the divine.

Analysis. sadevamanussa is a compound of sa- (with, together with) + deva (god, divine being) + manussa (human, man). The compound denotes the totality of conscious beings in the cosmos: gods (devas) and humans (manussā), used adverbially or attributively to mean 'among gods and men' or 'in the presence of all beings'.

Etymology. sa- derives from Indo-European *sem- (together, same; cognate with English same, Latin similis, Greek homos). Deva comes from Proto-Indo-European *deiw- (to shine, appear as divine; cognate with Latin deus, English deity). Manussa is from Sanskrit mānuṣa, deriving from Manu, the primordial man-progenitor, from the root *men- (mind, think; cognate with English man, mental, Latin mens, Greek menos).

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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